Soul Awakened (11 page)

His guilt manifested into a potent malicious energy that struck him in the chest. The crippling pain ripped through his body. He made no attempt to stop it. Punishment for deeds he could never forgive himself. He shrieked and crumpled in the darkness.

He lay trembling and unable to recover. His chest ached with a vengeance. In his delirium, he had to remind himself why he was here. His salvation called him to be found.

Confused and disoriented, he forced himself to stand. He stumbled aimlessly. His inability to concentrate only festered his growing frustration. He tipped his head back and bellowed. He needed to focus to make this work. Willing his feet to remain still, he closed his eyes and searched for the sweet nectar scent of her living energy. Her blood was unique, bathed by a pure rich soul. The bringer of life.

The irresistible fragrance carried across the planes of dreamscape. Subtle and light, it told him she was in the first phase of slumber. In a few minutes she would be in REM sleep and he could reach out to her. He must be patient, but his hunger was intolerant of anything except his immediate need. Too soon and he would taint her dream with blackness.

Standing at the threshold between their minds, Bakari searched the psychotic sea spread before him. He could go no further without her invitation. He paced the edge like a caged predator. He could feel the tingle of neuro-electrical conduction along the boundary line. Hers, a pure current, soft and gentle like her hands. Sweet as her blood. It only fueled his obsessive wanting.

He could not wait any longer. Bakari thrust his palms forward and hit the invisible barrier with force. A rippling wave coursed outward like a rock hitting calm water. The dreamscape opened at its center, pulling the black curtains that kept her hidden from him. The murkiness receded to reveal the object of his desire.

Bakari stepped back, surprised to find her standing naked in front of a large gold mirror. Her hair fell in long curls over her pale skin to her hips. The dreamscape’s striking detail shocked him. Usually, dreams were surrounded by a white halo. The unconscious mind painting reality in fluffy white clouds. Kendra’s vision was in crisp detail, down to the small birthmark on her hip. Could it be that she was not dreaming, but he was seeing her in a wakeful state? It could have been the bond she created between them that allowed him to connect with her mind.

All that separated them was the boundary between reality and dreamscape. So close, he could almost reach out and touch her. Gods, did he want to touch her. His hunger gnawed at his gut. She turned and brushed the edge of the fissure. The sweet nectar fragrance hit him hard. The scent washed over his bare skin and into his chest. He sighed, wanting so much more of it.

Kendra inhaled a sharp breath and stopped inches from the portal. Her hands immediately covered her round breasts that peeked through her curtain of soft hair. Her wary eyes peered over her shoulder, but failed to fixate on his location. She may have heard him but couldn’t conceive who or what made the sound. He was all but invisible. Desperate, he pressed his body against the barrier between them. “Come to me,” he whispered.

Her eyes widened confirming that she heard his request. She turned slowly in a circle, glancing to the right and left. “Is someone there?” she asked quietly.

His pain excruciating, he leaned his head against the barrier. “Come to me,
Parvana
.” His butterfly.

Kendra took several steps forward and hovered inches from him but it might as well be several billion. Her breath flitted across his skin. He fell to his knees, every cell of his body aching for her pain relieving touch and her energy to feed his starved and decimated soul.   

She lifted her trembling hand off her breast and slid her other arm across to maintain her modesty. She brushed her fingertips against the plane where his cheek rested. A fine electrical current penetrated his skin for the briefest moment.

She gasped, no doubt feeling the electrostatic charge. “Oh my.” Kendra glanced over her shoulder to the thin curtain that separated the bathroom and the bedroom. “Bakari?” she asked in the softest whisper.

Her voice brought him out of his stupor. The changes in her features became apparent. Changes he induced in his cell when he took her to the edge of death and back. The life energy flitted through his body repairing the damage, but it wasn’t enough, he needed more. A lot more.

He would have taken it, but she had cleverly bound herself to him. He could no more kill her than kill himself. His own self-preservation saved her life. Another torturous ploy by Kepi to keep him controlled. A part of him was thankful for it, as he had no means of self-control. The last thing he wanted to do is destroy his savior. She had literally raised him from the dead. Could you truly raise something that was dead for all intents and purposes? He was an Underworld god after all. No breath, no pulse, and no heat signature. Yes, he had a living soul and powers, but they were the representation of death, good and evil.

He breathed in deep to draw her scent into his body. The sweet taste of nectar filled his senses, but without her physical presence he could not draw energy off her soul. He needed life force to quell the pain knotting his gut and chest. His hunger, all consuming. He rationalized to himself once he was sated, he would be able to formulate an escape plan.

His mind was a jumbled mess, only focused on obtaining his basic needs—food in the form of living energy, safety, and what every male god obsessed about, sex. The last of which he had no interest, despite his five years of captivity. The evidence of apathy hung limp between his legs. He had the most beautiful creature standing before him naked, and not even a twinge of desire sparked his loins. That part of him was dead, the goddess ensured as much. Regardless, he was not worthy enough to touch such a pure woman.

This human female had a more delectable purpose. The blood in her veins was the second strongest energy, next to draining her soul. So pure it was almost toxic. He promised himself in his anorexic delirium he would be able to stop. Yes, a small taste would help. His mouth watered for the taste of her blood. His Parvana would give him the strength to escape from his hell. “Kendra, come to me.”

“No, step back slowly.” A male voice projected from the far room. The large guard pulled the dividing curtain, but did not enter. The male’s angry but weary black eyes bore straight into Bakari. The woman might not be able to see him, but this demon could. “Trust me. Do not cross the threshold.”

Kendra’s gaze darted over her shoulder. She immediately withdrew her hand and covered her body. Astonished brown eyes returned to face Bakari, but she didn’t move. Bakari felt some measure of triumph and curled his lips over his teeth. He growled, not liking one bit that his Parvana was anywhere near the guard in her disrobed state. Bakari hissed through the barrier, “Stay away from her, heathen. It is her choice to make.”

The guard’s eyes snapped to look at her. “Kendra, look at me. I know what you are feeling, the draw to go through, but you must not breach it.”

“What will it do?” she asked.

“He will pull you into his realm, or worse come into ours. He is not ready.”

Bakari’s bond with her was not strong enough to force her. He had not even considered the possibility that he could escape by this means, as it had never happened before without being in a dream state. He would be able to feed and escape, taking his Parvana with him. All the more imperative to convince her to make the connection.

Bakari softened the cutting edge of his voice, but the words came out forced. “He is lying. I would never harm you. Trust me.” The lies slid free of his tongue like butter. He may not harm her, but he would tear the flesh from the guard’s bones and anyone else standing in his way.

He would like nothing more than to remove the male’s soul from his heart. End his life with a mere thought. It was his craft. His power to destroy gods.

“Kendra!” Bakari barked so loud she jumped. “Come to me. I am the only one who can protect you.
You belong to me
.” The anger and frustration in his voice sent waves rippling out the portal. Bakari knew the minute those last words slipped from his mouth, he had lost her.

She tightened her arms across her chest. Keeping her eyes downcast, she took a step back and then another.

“No!” Bakari clawed at the barrier. His last hope slipped away with the distance she put between them. His own impatience to blame. “No!” His rage wavered to shades of his desperation. The pain doubled him over. “Help me, please.”

His pleas were left unanswered. The portal empty. His beautiful Parvana left him to suffer alone. Nothing had changed. He may be out of his sarcophagus but he was still isolated, paying for sins he had no hope of redeeming.

Kendra’s ears burned with the echoes of Bakari’s agonizing pleas. Her fear mixed with various levels of compassion and guilt. Tears slipped freely over her cheeks. She heard the faint muffed sobs through the strange rippling pool. She forced her muscles to deny the impulse to comply with his commands. Bakari spoke the truth. Her soul was his whether she liked it or not, and it scared the hell out of her.

She knew this journey to find the cure for the curse wouldn’t be easy. She had lost her father to it. He was the first to fall ill when the goddess awoke. She remembered the sickly grey color to his skin a few days before he passed. Red petechia dotted the whites of his eyes. Kepi’s curse on mankind reanimated the souls of the dead, creating flesh eating zombies. Their bites were infectious and spread the curse to other humans instantaneously. Kepi had enslave the human race and created an army to use at her disposal.

She couldn’t save her father. He lay in the crypt below the palace. So many lives lost. She looked again at the rippling pool. Bakari’s pleas had fallen silent. Dread pooled in her heart. She couldn’t stand by and watch another soul fall to the curse.

Disregarding Bomani’s warning, she launched herself at the undulating vortex. Only the urgent call of her name chased her through the void before it snapped closed behind her.

The coldness hit like an arctic blast, reminding her immediately that she was wearing only panties. She wrapped her arms around her chest with the instinctual need to keep warm.

She stumbled in the gray haze, turning every which way trying to locate Bakari. Her teeth knocked together with the synchronicity of a broken metronome.
Way to go genius, you didn’t think this through.
A low moan broke the silence. She zoned in on a dark form.

He lay face down in the blackness. She ran in staggered steps to get to him. The ground in this realm, where ever it was, recoiled with each of her steps throwing her slightly off balance. Finally, she knelt beside Bakari. A clump of his long onyx and white hair covered the side his face. She gingerly swept it way with her stiff finger. His eyes were closed with the expression of pain frozen on his face. She tried to roll him over, but it equated to no more than a shove.

Slightly panicked, she shook him. “Bakari wake up. Come on. Wake up. I want to help you, but I can’t move you on my own.”

A few more hard shakes and the moaning started again. At least that seemed to be a good sign. His body lightened enough to allow her to move an arm, a leg, and then a shoulder, until she triumphantly rolled him onto his back.

Tremors racked her body. She touched her stiff fingertips to the side of his cheek. His eyes shot open the minute she made contact. His brows furrowed and tears slipped from the corners of his eyes.

“Hi.” She couldn’t think of anything else to say in such unusual circumstances and it’s all her frozen lips could form at the moment with her clattering teeth. His eyes closed again under tight brows. His chest began to rise and fall with heavy breaths.

“It’s going to be okay,” she reassured him, but she wasn’t so sure. If she didn’t get him up and moving somewhere, she’d be a popsicle. She had no idea where the heck she was, let alone choose a direction to go. The portal had closed behind her. She assumed the exit was in Bakari’s cell.

“How do we get out?”

He shook his head and more tears slipped down his cheeks.

“Listen, I know this is confusing, but I need you to get up and take us back. I promise to explain everything.” Her fingers curled into tight fists so much so she couldn’t open them wide enough to grip his large hand. Not that she had the strength to pull him anywhere.